Canada's first casino chapel is gambling on public acceptance as it extends the welcome mat to gay couples along with heterosexuals wishing to tie the knot.

"Gay couples are welcome," Larry Lewin, president of Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, said in an interview from Palm Springs, Calif.

"We follow the trends of what the country is leaning toward and there is no issue toward gay marriages, so we are very supportive."

The chapel opened Sunday with about 300 couples renewing their wedding vows. There is acrimonious debate in Canada on the topic of same-sex marriage.

In Ottawa, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin is stickhandling legislation legalizing gay marriages amid vocal opposition.

While Martin said extending marriage rights to gays is what real Canadians want, Opposition Leader Stephen Harper denounced the prime minister as intellectually dishonest.
But Lewin said he's not concerned some of that opposition might end up directed at his casino.

"We just want to make it a happy place," he said.
"If people find that (marrying gays) is objectionable, and there are riots or pickets or demonstrations or whatever, I guess we'll deal with it as we move along."

Lewin said he did not anticipate there would be any such problems.

He also said he did not expect a sudden flood of Americans, gay or straight, streaming across the border.

In the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the SARS outbreak in Toronto, the proportion of American visitors fell from a high of about 55 per cent to closer to 40 per cent, he said.

"I would think the chapel would run approximately the same way."

The city of Niagara Falls, Ont., billed as the Honeymoon Capital of the World, has been no stranger to gay couples who want to marry - especially those from the United States.
Of the 1,182 marriage licences issued last year, 169 went to gay couples - 163 of them American.

Lydia Picca, the city's vital statistics and licensing clerk, said it she couldn't tell if the chapel would make any difference to the numbers.

"They come in here, but we don't know where they go to get married," said Picca.

The casino, which charges between $700 and $2,500 for its chapel services, is making no special provisions for gay couples.

Instead, they are being offered the same variety of packages as heterosexual couples, with the price depending on whether rooms, meals or other services are included.

The chapel has about 100 marriages booked over the next six months and expects to perform about 1,200 to 1,500 a year, Lewin said.